Total techie takeover of Mid-Market? Won't happen

Greg Gopman, right, was the embodiment of the clueless, entitled local techie last
week when he posted spectacularly insensitive Facebook comments about
the streets of the San Francisco.

Greg Gopman, right, was the embodiment of the clueless, entitled local techie last
week when he posted spectacularly insensitive Facebook comments about
the streets of the San Francisco.

Photo: Business Insider

Photo: Business Insider

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Greg Gopman, right, was the embodiment of the clueless, entitled local techie last
week when he posted spectacularly insensitive Facebook comments about
the streets of the San Francisco.

Greg Gopman, right, was the embodiment of the clueless, entitled local techie last
week when he posted spectacularly insensitive Facebook comments about
the streets of the San Francisco.

Photo: Business Insider

Total techie takeover of Mid-Market? Won't happen

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Greg Gopman has changed his Facebook profile photo. Now it is says: "I (heart) San Francisco.

Nice try.

Gopman was the embodiment of the clueless, entitled local techie last week when he posted spectacularly insensitive Facebook comments about the streets of the city. It wasn't just that he railed against the "crazy, homeless, drug dealers, dropouts and trash," but also his oh-so-superior tone.

Particularly disturbing was his assertion that the poor and homeless should stay out of view, like "in other cosmopolitan cities, (where) the lower part of society keep to themselves ... (because) they realize it's a privilege to be in the civilized part of town and view themselves as guests. And that's OK."

Gopman has been excoriated and has issued an apology. His company, AngelHack, quickly said he had stepped down as CEO in October and has "not taken an active role in the company" since then. In other words, don't blame us.

Which is fine. If you say dumb stuff on the Internet, you are going to get scorched.

However ...

Here at The Chronicle we regularly get e-mails that begin, "My family and I recently visited your city from (generic region of the country), and we were shocked to encounter beggars, drug dealers and homeless men passed out in the center of town."

Sure, you say, but now that's all changing. The tech firms are moving in, and Mid-Market is about to experience a renaissance.

Not so fast.

David Addington was an early investor in the Mid-Market corridor when he bought the Warfield Building, which he's since sold, a little more than eight years ago. Among other ventures he started is Show Dogs, a gourmet hot dog joint on the edge of the theater district. He's had his rough moments. I remember him talking about the guy walking down Market who threw a chair through one of the plate-glass windows. Just because.

But now it is all going to turn around, right?

We will see, Addington said.

"I think when people envision urban renewal, they have the idea of old, decrepit buildings being taken down and a wholesale replacement of the populace," he said this week. "That's not going to happen. The (single room occupancy hotels) and nonprofit housing will stay. And that's fine, but let's make it clear it is not going to be a clean slate."

Nor, Addington said, will unpleasant situations be handled as quickly as the newbies expect.

"If you come from virtually any other place," Addington said, "and there is open and obvious drug dealing going on, you'd think you'd make a call, maybe two, and it is going to go away."

Good luck with that.

Understand, that doesn't mean that the new businesses and young residents aren't going to improve things. It will be better - but in the context of the existing neighborhood.

"I have been saying for years that this neighborhood has a good chance of becoming less crappy," Addington said. "The question is: Is it going to be great?"

It isn't as if people aren't willing to make an effort.

Lately there has been lots of vague talk about the tech companies doing something to improve conditions on the street. In a blog post on AngelHack's site, Sabeen Ali, who replaced Gopman as CEO, calls on the community to step up.

"If the presence of the homeless and poverty bothers us (which it should because no human being should have to live in poverty) then we should do something about it," she wrote.

Great. What do you have in mind? Because this is a long-standing San Francisco problem.

Here's one suggestion. Homeless shelters. There's confusion over whether beds are available. Maybe someone could develop an app that city crews could use to better track those beds. Or, smart as they are, maybe they could come up with a better idea.

But the techies need to understand the neighborhood and the current residents.

"This is where they live," Addington said. "And frankly, they've been here a lot longer than you."